Episode 347: Care Considerations for Radiopharmaceuticals and Theranostics in Patients With Cancer

"If you take your normal radiation oncology experience, as we know in radiation oncology, radiations are done by the machines, you know, externally. Nurses deal with the side effects and everything like that, whereas radiopharmaceuticals are given kind of on the internal basis, they're systemic," ONS member John Hollman, BSN, RN, OCN®, radiation nurse educator for Texas Oncology, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about caring for patients receiving radiopharmaceuticals and theranostics. Music Credit: " Fireflies and Stardust " by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by January 24, 2026. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to radiopharmaceuticals and theranostics in cancer care. Episode Notes Complete this evaluation for free NCPD . ONS Podcast ™ episodes: Episode 339: A Lesson on Labs: How to Monitor and Educate Patients With Cancer Episode 301: Radiation Oncology: Side Effect and Care Coordination Best Practices Episode 298: Radiation Oncology: Nursing's Essential Roles Episode 12: The Intersection of Radiation and Medical Oncology Nursing ONS Voice articles: Radiopharmaceuticals and Theranostics Offer New Options for Oncology Nurses to Transform Cancer Care Radiopharmaceuticals Pack a One-Two Punch Against Cancer Oncology Drug Reference Sheet: Radium 223 Dichloride Oncology Drug Reference Sheet: Lutetium Lu 177 Dotatate Oncology Drug Reference Sheet: Lutetium Lu 177 Vipivotide Tetraxetan ONS book: Manual for Radiation Oncology Nursing Practice and Education (fifth edition) ONS courses: Essentials in Advanced Practice Cancer Treatments ONS/ONCC Radiation Therapy Certificate™ Step Outside Your Specialty: Broaden Your Learning Horizon Across ONS Congress™ Session Tracks Share your experience with ONS Voice . To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities . To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library . To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org . Highlights From This Episode "I think most places are now doing the seven days, just to be extra cautious and you know, can't you be around any pregnant women or children, you can't just be going to Target and stuff like that right after your injection because you are radioactive, and try not to share a bathroom with your family, that can be difficult and that leads into, as we've talked about in many talks that we've had, the social situation." TS 8:08 "It's really up to that nurse to recognize, like a good infusion nurse, to recognize the signs and symptoms of an infusion reaction and then to catch it at the earliest possible moment." TS 11:42 We're not really dependent on lab values between treatments, whereas the infusion you have to look at your lab values. These are the game changer." TS 13:20 "You just hear the term radiation, and you just think of Chernobyl, or you think of like these worst-case, media-blown things and you think, how are you not being dosed with radiation every day? Because they don't realize that you have this whole radiation safety team that's required to be overseeing that you're doing things safely and effectively, that these nurses that are administering these therapies or these therapists that are helping with the therapy are the safest as possible." TS 18:37 "If it wasn't safe, we wouldn't be doing it. You know what I mean? So, there is that implicit bias that I think I can foresee a lot of people trying hard to get over. And if you do have questions, anyone who's listening, and you're scared that your center is going to roll this out, please talk to your physicians, please talk to your radiation oncologists, please talk to your radiation safety officers. They can definitely assure and put your fears at rest, hopefully. I 100% trust the radiation safety officers." TS 19:45 "That's why the nurses really need to be educated by those radiation safety teams so they can pass those questions, or they can answer those questions, alleviate those fears on consultation—or actually during the week when we're calling in for questions." TS 21:07 "I think getting both teams involved, if you're going to really do this partnership, I find it really rare that it's ever solely in rad onc. It's always usually a combination of both. They're always referred to us from that onc or somewhere. So, you really need that partnership." TS 23:20 "This is so great to see what the future holds with these. And like I said, now they're trying to do clinical studies for different diagnoses. So I think it's just going to explode in the next few years about what we can use these for. It's really an exciting time to be not only in oncology, but in radiation oncology." TS 26:54